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					<h1><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular">Game Rules</font>
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					<h3><a id="Anchor-Ho-63763" name="Anchor-Ho-63763"></a><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular"><b>How to Play</b></font></h3>
					<p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular">The goal is to clear the board by removing all the tiles from the layout. Layouts can differ in pattern, size and height. Currently, however, there is only one <a href="tiles.html#Anchor-Mahjon-64307">layout</a> available. You must remove the tiles in pairs. A pair consists of two tiles which both are <i>(i)</i> &quot;free&quot; and <i>(ii)</i> identical (or of the same <i>type</i>).</font></p>
					<p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular">A tile is &quot;free&quot; when:</font></p>
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						<li><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular">no other tile is lying above or is partially covering it</font>
						<li><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular">and no other tile is lying to the left or to the right of it (it can &quot;slide&quot; in one or both these directions..)</font>
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					<p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular">Two tiles are identical if they look exactly the same (of course...). An exception to this are the <i><a href="#Anchor-Th-53510">Flowers</a></i> and <i><a href="#Anchor-5237">Seasons</a> </i>tiles. They are non-identical matching tiles and belong to the same <i>type</i>. All the <i>Flowers</i> tiles match one another and all the&nbsp;<i>Season</i> tiles match one another. You should study them before starting a game.</font></p>
					<p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular">Each tile appears four times in a standard solitaire mahjongg game. Again an exception for the <i>Flowers</i> and <i>Seasons</i> tiles who appear only once each during a game.&nbsp; </font></p>
					<p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular">It's not as easy as it sounds; you can end up with having matched the &quot;wrong&quot; pairs and you may find yourself stuck, with unmatchable tiles blocking other key tiles so you can't clear the layout. You must be careful before removing a pair, you should look for where the remaining pair is in the layout and plan ahead. If all four of an identical tile are free, remove them to 'unclutter' the field. It's not only a game of pure luck, you have to play strategic.&nbsp;</font></p>
					<h3><a id="Anchor-Th-15172" name="Anchor-Th-15172"></a><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular">The Tiles</font></b></h3>
					<p align="justify"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular">A Mah-Jongg set consists of 144 <a href="tiles.html">tiles</a>. These are split in seven groups, called sets. The three first sets are numeric and they are called <b>suits</b>. The winds and the dragons tiles are called <b>honor tiles</b>. </font></p>
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						<p style="margin-left: 0; margin-top: 0"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular"><img src="wheels.png" border="0"></font></p>
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					<font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular">The top row of each tile set contains the 9 <b>ball tiles</b> (also known as 'circle', 'badges' or the 'dots' tiles). Their numerical value (1 to 9) are represented by the number of balls shown on the tiles. There are four tiles of every Ball (36 tiles total).</font>
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						<p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular"><img src="bamboo.png" border="0"></font></p>
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					<p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular">The second row from the top contains the 9 <b>bamboo tiles</b> (also known as 'sticks' or 'bams'). Their numerical value (1 to 9) are represented by the number of sticks shown on the tiles. There are four tiles of every Bamboo (36 tiles total). A peacock, a rice bird or a real Mah Jongg bird (a sparrow) or occasionally a bamboo shoot which resembles a pineapple is shown on tile number one.&nbsp;</font></p>
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						<p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular"><img src="characters.png" height="75" width="500" border="0"></font></p>
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					<p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular">The third row contains the 9 <b>characters tiles </b>(also called the 'number', 'Wan', 'Ten Thousand' or the 'craks' tiles). The red symbol is the Chinese sign for 10.000 (and the sign for prosperity). The black symbol above are the sign for the numbers from 1 to 9. That would make them numbers from 10.000 to 90.000. Many games have put Arabic numbers on the corresponding tiles to help people from the western world.&nbsp;There are four tiles of every Character (36 tiles total).</font></p>
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						<p><a id="Anchor-5237" name="Anchor-5237"></a><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular"><img src="seasons.png" height="75" width="228" border="0"></font></p>
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					<p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular">The fourth row starts with the four <b>seasons tiles</b>. Contrary to the above mentioned suits the seasons tiles only appear once each in a game (4 tiles total). From left to right: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Printed above is the the corresponding abbreviations for the seasons. These tiles can either have an image or a Chinese symbol. When you play solitaire mahjongg any season will match another season.</font></p>
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						<p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular"><img src="winds.png" height="75" width="228" border="0"> </font></p>
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					<p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular">The fourth row end with the four <b>wind tiles</b>. From left to right: North, South, West, and East. Shown on every tile is the Chinese symbol for the according wind. Again, in computer games, we cheat: The first letter of the wind is printed using Latin characters. There are four tiles of every wind (16 tiles total).</font></p>
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						<p><a id="Anchor-Th-53510" name="Anchor-Th-53510"></a><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular"><img src="flowers.png" border="0"></font></p>
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					<p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular">The fifth row starts with four <b>flowers tiles</b>. Just as the seasons tiles, the flowers tiles only appear once each in a game (4 tiles total). From left to right: The Orchid, the Chrysanthemum, the Bamboo, and the Plum Blossom. When you play solitaire mahjong any flower will match another flower).</font></p>
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						<p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular"><img src="dragons.png" height="75" width="170" border="0"> </font></p>
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					<p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular">The fifth row ends with the <b>dragons tiles</b>. From left to right: White Dragon, Red Dragon, and Green Dragon. The white dragon can be a blank tile tile, or like here, it can have an image of an rectangle (outlined in black or blue). There are four tiles of every dragon (12 tiles total).</font></p>
					<p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular">The Winds and Dragons tiles are important in true mahjongg games, but plays no special role in solitaire mahjongg games where they are treated just like the suites. It's the other way around with the Flowers and Seasons tiles. In true mahjongg they have no part in the actual play; they are only valuable as bonus points and represents the element of chance in the game. In solitaire mahjongg they are important because they are the only non-identical matching tiles and occur only one time each (as to four times each for the other tiles).&nbsp;</font></p>
					<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-GB" lang="EN-GB"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular">&nbsp; </font></span></p>
					<h3 class="normaltext"><a id="Anchor-Th-30724" name="Anchor-Th-30724"></a><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular">The Strategy</font></h3>
					<p class="normaltext"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular">Remember that there are four of each tile. When removing a pair, remember that an identical pair exists in the layout. Is it trapped by your removal of the first pair? Choose wisely. </font></p>
					<p class="normaltext"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular">Concentrate your efforts on long rows and tall stacks. </font></p>
					<p class="normaltext"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular">Plan ahead as many moves as you can. </font></p>
					<p class="normaltext"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular">If all four of a tile are available, remove them all to unclutter the field. </font></p>
					<p class="normaltext"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular">Don't count on the computer to show you the best possible move; the <a href="intro.html#Anchor-Hin-38907">Hint</a> function only shows either the first move it finds or (depending on your <a href="intro.html#Anchor-Settin-1140">settings</a>) picks one randomly. </font></p>
					<p class="normaltext"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular">Identify as many matching pairs as possible. Check for tiles that need to be unblocked. </font></p>
					<p class="normaltext"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular">Beware of triples (three matching free tiles); choose carefully which pair you remove. Leave the one that's blocking the least important tiles. </font></p>
					<p class="normaltext"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular">Concentrate on removing pairs that will unblock the most tiles.&nbsp; </font></p>
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